Iran's Claiming to Have a Stealth Fighter

Iran's unveiled what they claim is their answer to the Western world's fighter aircraft -- their own, home-brewed stealth fighter to rival the very best of the US's aerial armada. Only problem? It's probably a hoax.

A 'prototype' F-313 was unveiled as part of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies in Iran. It looks like some weird mash-up of the Batmobile and a F-22 Raptor stealth fighter -- the thing's got 4 wings, for crying out loud! As The Aviationist point out, it's also too small to be a proper fighter -- the nose, where a targeting radar apparently lives, is way too small for a proper targeting radar, they reckon.

Furthermore, there's a video of it 'flying', but it doesn't really fly like a jet-powered stealth aircraft should -- it's suspiciously like a RC airplane with a bodykit. Overall, then, I don't think the West has to worry about covert incursions by Iranian aircraft quite yet -- we'll wait until they have an actual flying fighter to sound the alarm bells.

Also, I think that if Iran actually had a real stealth plane, they'd debut it somewhere a bit more glamorous than what looks like a run-down industrial estate. [Wired]